Jamil Smith
- Faculty Lecturer, University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley
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Faculty lecturer, @UCBerkeley Journalism. Formerly: @RollingStone, et. al. Writer, editor, producer, audio host. Thinking about identity, politics, and power.
Articles by Jamil Smith
Nolan’s Odyssey shows what happens when a leader’s violations are rewarded
‘Nolan makes an argument that the methods developed for an enemy abroad do not stay abroad.’ Photograph: Landmark Media/Alamy I had not read The Odyssey since I was a student. Stories change when we return to them later in life, or perhaps we are the ones who change. Christopher Nolan’s film made me want to find out what I had missed. More specifically, it made me want to read Emily Wilson’s translation. Her scathing essay about the film nearly stopped me from buying her translation.
The US agency that fights workplace discrimination just voted to stop measuring it
‘The federal government wants to stop keeping the count it created to tell whether employers obey the law.’ Photograph: Mariam Zuhaib/AP Workplace discrimination isolates. When a Black manager is passed over for a promotion, or a pregnant worker is quietly sidelined, they are left with a polite excuse and a lingering suspicion. They cannot see the company-wide spreadsheet. They cannot know if others are hitting the same invisible wall.
The US agency that fights workplace discrimination just voted to stop measuring it
Workplace discrimination isolates. When a Black manager is passed over for a promotion, or a pregnant worker is quietly sidelined, they are left with a polite excuse and a lingering suspicion. They cannot see the company-wide spreadsheet. They cannot know if others are hitting the same invisible wall. For 60 years, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has kept a spreadsheet of its own: an annual demographic snapshot compiled from employer reports.
Trump is invoking foreign election interference to justify his own
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Trump is invoking foreign election interference to justify his own
‘The president’s grievance is 2020, but his government is targeting 2026.’ Photograph: Saul Loeb/UPI/Shutterstock There is a version of this country in which Donald Trump tells Americans the truth he has been handed: that their elections are secure. Once, he apparently wanted to. The Atlantic reported after Thursday night’s address that a February 2020 election-security briefing pleased Trump so much he wanted to announce the news himself. The press conference never happened.
Lorenzo Salgado Araujo is dead. How long will ICE be allowed to hide its face?
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Lorenzo Salgado Araujo is dead. How long will ICE be allowed to hide its face?
‘If Americans want a government that commands trust rather than fear, they must demand more of those who exercise its power than of those who must live with what it does.’ Photograph: Annie Mulligan/AP There are videos that do more than document a story. They alter the way we understand it. Ronaldo Salgado spent 7 July searching for his father. At the scene of a shooting in Houston’s East End, he found his father’s work van behind police tape.
I’m in no mood to ‘celebrate’ America. Our country is broken and needs repair
‘A republic does not survive because its people praise it. It survives because they repair it.’ Photograph: Allison Bailey/NurPhoto/Shutterstock To call this Saturday the nation’s 250th birthday is to indulge a comfortable fiction. 1776 was a declaration, not a birth certificate – and the founders wrote its claims of human equality while this nation enslaved human beings.
I'm in no mood to 'celebrate' America. Our country is broken and needs repair
To call this Saturday the nation's 250th birthday is to indulge a comfortable fiction. 1776 was a declaration, not a birth certificate – and the founders wrote its claims of human equality while this nation enslaved human beings. A truer account of American freedom runs through and Juneteenth , when Americans forced the country, at last, to begin making its promises answerable to reality. So I'm not in the mood to celebrate “America 250”, and I'm not alone.
New monument turns Rosa Parks’s booking number into warning on US erasure
Jamil Smith Fri, June 19, 2026 at 2:00 PM UTC 7 min read Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Sculpture of Rosa Parks's arrest number at Montgomery SquarePhotograph: Jamil Smith At the recently opened Montgomery Square in Alabama, bronze hands rise from the pavement, holding a placard against the sky. It reads 7053, the booking number displayed in Rosa Parks's 1956 mugshot after she and other leaders of the Montgomery bus boycott were arrested.
The Republican project isn't to win in November. It's to make November cease to matter
Jamil Smith Early this month, a single pen stroke effectively ended representative Steve Cohen's career in Congress. The man who has represented Memphis for 19 years will turn 77 later this month, but he wasn't planning on retiring. He hadn't lost any primary. The reason was that his district had been erased around him. The new map folds a significant portion of Cohen's Black constituents into Williamson county, which sits south of Nashville and was, until recently, the subject of a different fight.
The next Voting Rights Act must outlaw gerrymandering
Maps can guide us home. They show us where we are, where we have been and where we might go. Electoral maps can do something even more sinister, though. They often tell us what and who is allowed to matter. They can decide, before a single ballot is cast, whether an entire voting bloc will become powerful or be buried by the design of a party that is indifferent – at best – to their needs and wants. Gerrymandering, at its most brutal, does more than help one party win.
The supreme court trusts America not to be racist. I don’t
‘Strip away the procedural language and the ruling rests on a single premise: that America has changed enough that these protections are no longer necessary.’ Photograph: Alex Wong/Getty Images Six supreme court justices handed down a ruling built, ostensibly, on the belief that the US has changed so much as to render the protections of the Voting Rights Act unnecessary. No one should be that gullible.
The Supreme Court trusts America not to be racist. I don’t
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Trump taught us to prioritize our own wallets. Now he’s paying the price
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Trump taught us to prioritize our own wallets. Now he’s paying the price
‘The movement that spent years training people not to extend their concern beyond the visible is now being judged exactly the way it taught people to judge everything else.’ Photograph: Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA The airport in Las Vegas last Friday afternoon was what you might expect for a WrestleMania weekend. Packed terminal. Delays stacking up. Nobody going anywhere. Then we heard why. Air Force One was on the ground. Everything stopped. No one was taking off until the president finished doing his business.
Hungary's strongman lost. His ideas live on in the White House
Jamil Smith The strongest men I've known didn't behave anything like Donald Trump. They were capable of restraint, first off. They may have spoken loudly, but they never used volume to enforce authority. None of them thought domination equaled leadership. How silly that would be. Instead, these men empathized. They listened, correcting themselves when necessary. They apologized without fear of appearing weak. They understood that a paycheck, a job title, or physical prowess alone did not make them men.
Hungary’s strongman lost. His ideas live on in the White House
‘The president appears strong because we have decided that strength looks like this.’ Photograph: Matt Kaminsky/Zuma Press Wire/Shutterstock The strongest men I’ve known didn’t behave anything like Donald Trump. They were capable of restraint, first off. They may have spoken loudly, but they never used volume to enforce authority. None of them thought domination equaled leadership. How silly that would be. Instead, these men empathized. They listened, correcting themselves when necessary.
Protesters dumped a Columbus statue in 2020. Trump installed a replica near the White House
The Trump administration recently took a position on a man with a documented record of genocide and enslavement. “In this White House,” a spokesman announced last week, following the installation of a statue on the grounds of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, “Christopher Columbus is a hero.” It is worth pausing on that word. A hero, in the civic sense, is not merely someone whom people admire. It is someone whose story the country agrees to tell in a particular way.
Protesters dumped a Columbus statue in 2020. Trump installed a replica near the White House
‘Honoring Columbus at the White House does not require discovering these facts. It requires deciding they do not matter.’ Photograph: Kylie Cooper/Reuters The Trump administration recently took a position on a man with a documented record of genocide and enslavement. “In this White House,” a spokesman announced last week, following the installation of a statue on the grounds of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, “Christopher Columbus is a hero.” It is worth pausing on that word.
Six years after Breonna Taylor’s killing, America is weakening the rules that could have saved her
‘What this administration’s quiet reversal tells us is that her death has been processed — grieved, protested, memorialized — and filed away.’ Photograph: Timothy D Easley/AP She had spent the evening at home in Louisville. The 26-year-old was an emergency room technician, someone who worked to prevent other people’s tragedies. After midnight, police officers arrived at her apartment with a warrant. They moved quickly, forcing open the door.
In a Trump war, with great power comes no responsibility
The bombs fell in our name before any of us knew. Then the president saw fit to inform us. Legal scholars and politicians alike began debating whether they were constitutional. Markets responded within hours. Cities across the United States moved to heightened alert amid fears of retaliation. The sequence matters. In a constitutional system built on checks and balances, that system is supposed to constrain the use of military force before it unfolds.
In a Trump war, with great power comes no responsibility
‘Responsibility in matters of war is not rhetorical.’ Photograph: Majid Asgaripour/Reuters The bombs fell in our name before any of us knew. Then the president saw fit to inform us. Legal scholars and politicians alike began debating whether they were constitutional. Markets responded within hours. Cities across the United States moved to heightened alert amid fears of retaliation.
Trump has done more than harm the government’s ability to fight global heating
What he was lying about is a truth the federal government – even under his first administration – has embraced for nearly two decades. Photograph: Jon Cherry/Getty Images The climate crisis is killing people. These deaths are measurable, documented and ongoing. Concluding otherwise is just playing pretend. Studies explain the mechanics, but lived experience supplies the truth. The people who suffer the consequences see the fire rising and water closing in. They need their government’s help.
Trump has done more than harm the government’s ability to fight global heating
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Trump’s racist post about the Obamas was a wake-up call for some. Why did it take so long?
‘The consequences of Trump’s second term have been both unmistakable and unforgivable.’ Photograph: Andrew Leyden/NurPhoto/Shutterstock John from New Mexico, a self-professed lifelong Republican, called into C-Span’s Washington Journal earlier this month with penitence on his mind. “I voted for the president and supported him,” he began.
Inc. - business - Read this story on Magzter.com
Actively Black isn't just an athleisure line—it's a movement. QUALITY CONTROL Lanny Smith wanted to make sure customers "never felt like they had to sacrifice quality to buy Black-owned." When she was only 6 years old, Ruby Bridges walked to school in November 1960 and made history. Dressed for her first day at what was, until that moment, an all-White elementary school in New Orleans, federal marshals flanked her as she made her way through a phalanx of people spitting racism at her.
Why, and how, journalists must cover racism
It is impossible to watch, read, or otherwise consume the news of our day without recognizing that racism is in everything. Whether the coverage be about politics, the economy, sports, food, or (most certainly) civil rights, we simply must understand the individual bigotries, historical precedents, and structural discrimination that shape our lives as Americans and as citizens of the world.
Why 1963 was America's tipping point
“Independence Day” is a misnomer. I’ve argued previously that the true celebration should occur on June 19, to commemorate the day in 1865 when the last enslaved Black women, men, and children were liberated in Galveston, Texas, months before Congress ratified the 13th Amendment. Still, the United States didn’t become a functional and representative democracy, in any real sense, until President Lyndon Baines Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act into law on July 2, 1964.
Hey Arnold am 28. April 2025 um 03:00 Uhr auf nickelodeon
Arnold bekommt Besuch von seinem Cousin Arnie, zu dessen Hobbies unter anderem das Lesen von Inhaltsstoffen auf Lebensmittelpackungen zählt. Besuch bei Kokoschkas! Suzies Cousine Nancy kommt und bringt ihren kleinen Sohn, Oskar, mit.
The Emancipator is moving to Howard University
We have some big news to share. This summer, our co-founder Dr. Ibram X. Kendi will be moving to Howard University to be a professor of history and build the Institute for Advanced Study, which will be dedicated to the interdisciplinary study of racism in the global African Diaspora. The institute will revolve around a competitive Residential Fellowship Program where an annual international class of fellows will pursue impactful projects across disciplines and fields.
Do not obey in advance
Along with a copy of the 13th Amendment, I typically carry a copy of historian Timothy Snyder’s “On Tyranny” in my satchel when I’m headed out of the door in the morning. Both are small and fit well into the pocket next to my laptop. The amendment, with its loophole for enslavement, remains a frank reminder of American imperfection.
The Emancipator’s best stories this year (in our opinion)
We make lists for all sorts of reasons, especially in December. When it comes to year-end recaps, though, I’ve always felt we make them so we can argue. This is fine with me, actually. We here at The Emancipator cover race and racism, after all. We won’t fully understand — or end the problem — without a lot of vigorous and intellectually honest debate. With that in mind, we present to you a list of Emancipator staff picks.
Don’t wait until the worst happens
This story was first published in Critical Thinking. Yoon Suk-yeol tried it. The increasingly unpopular South Korean president, still reeling from his party’s losses in the spring elections, attempted last week to become a dictator, issuing an emergency declaration of martial law, which would have banned political protest and subjected the press and their reports to government approval.
Election Day is not the end
Today is Election Day, and we’re all tired. As journalists who work for a magazine that seeks solutions to racial inequity, we get it: Bigotry is exhausting. Donald Trump’s third run for the presidency has been enough to make anyone want to crawl under the covers until it’s over. Once again, his campaign rhetoric and policy proposals have been rife with racism, sexism, antisemitism, and apologia for autocrats and plutocrats alike.
Live DNC updates: Biden’s “surprisingly antiracist” opening night speech
August 20, 2024, 4:15 p.m. CDT President Joe Biden gave a forceful, and at times antiracist, keynote address on night one of the 2024 Democratic National Convention. Credit: Tami Nguyen / The Emancipator Democrats land blows on Donald Trump in night one speeches Jamil Smith, Editor-in-chief A momentous, historic, and joyous first night of the 2024 Democratic National Convention stretched past midnight here in Chicago, and few at the United Center seemed to mind.
The best offense is defense, this election and every election
When Vice President Kamala Harris accepts the Democratic nomination for president on Thursday night, her campaign will only be a little more than a month old. It’s tempting to say that it feels longer than that, given all that has happened since President Joe Biden departed the race. But time flies when you’re having fun. The optimism, joy, and, yes, hope in the air is palpable.
How land is ‘a fellow victim and hostage’ to racial capitalism
If this were a Family Feud questionnaire and I asked you about “things that are stolen,” I’d wager that personal property, food or merchandise for sale, or one’s heart may be the top answers on the board. Suggesting “land” as an answer might even earn you a strike. I suggest, then, that you read Rooted: The American Legacy of Land Theft and the Modern Movement for Black Land Ownership.
Bryan Stevenson’s monuments to the Black American story
It’s been nearly seven years since the proposed removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee in Charlottesville, Virginia that culminated in a weekend of lethal white-supremacist rioting and terrorism. It was around that time that many people worldwide learned, seemingly for the first time, that the statue itself was terrorism. It was part of a long legacy of Jim Crow pushback against the reality that Black Americans are owed civil and human rights. It’s also meant to erase and reconfigure history.
The future of reparations in Boston - and everywhere else
Four summers ago, amid an all-too-brief global uprising against racism after the murder of George Floyd, I wrote that Juneteenth is the closest thing this country has to an honest Independence Day. This Wednesday marks a moment of emancipation, of course. But with Reconstruction lasting only a little more than a decade before the rise of Jim Crow, Juneteenth also represents, perhaps, a missed opportunity for America to save itself from itself.
Conservatives have a plan to end multiracial democracy. It starts with the vote.
A former president is standing trial for a criminal offense for the first time in U.S. history. On Monday, the prosecutor’s opening statement in The People of the State of New York v. Donald J. Trump steered away from the crime itself — a hush money payment — and reminded the jury that these allegations are about corrupting an election and deceiving voters.
Arizona’s 1864 “zombie” law is a reminder that all abortion bans are racist
The Arizona Supreme Court has exhumed an abortion ban that dates back to 1864, effectively ending access to abortion in the state. Democrats in the state house have been trying to repeal the ban, only to be repeatedly blocked by Republican representatives. The “zombie” law builds upon the state’s existing 15-week ban.
The Assignment with Audie Cornish
When James Carville criticized the “preachy females” at the forefront of Democratic politics, he kicked off a firestorm of outrage and perhaps a little introspection. Did “The Ragin’ Cajun” have a point, however impolitely made? Do Democrats have a problem with men? Especially Black men and other men of color?
Reparations in America aren’t rare. Why the holdout for Black Americans?
Lessie Benningfield Randle and Viola Fletcher are 109 years old. After Fletcher’s younger brother Hughes Van Ellis at age 102, the two women became the last known survivors of the Tulsa Race Massacre, a 1921 pogrom targeting a prosperous, heavily Black district of Tulsa, Oklahoma. To date, it remains among the deadliest and most destructive incidents of racial violence in U.S. history.
Reparations in America aren’t rare. Why the holdout for Black Americans?
Lessie Benningfield Randle and Viola Fletcher are 109 years old. After Fletcher’s younger brother Hughes Van Ellis at age 102, the two women became the last known survivors of the Tulsa Race Massacre, a 1921 pogrom targeting a prosperous, heavily Black district of Tulsa, Oklahoma. To date, it remains among the deadliest and most destructive incidents of racial violence in U.S. history.
We urgently need more antiracist journalism. Here is how we’ll play our part.
I first learned to type during the summers I spent going to the office with my grandmother. She worked for a magistrate in Pittsburgh, and she sat me within sight of her desk, trusting me to behave. I was probably eight at the time, and my only toy was a typewriter. I was already a bookworm, so I understood the fundamental power of words. It was hardly Shakespeare, mind you, but typing next to Grandma was the first time I recall ever grasping my own power to do something with those words.
We urgently need more antiracist journalism. Here is how we’ll play our part.
I first learned to type during the summers I spent going to the office with my grandmother. She worked for a magistrate in Pittsburgh, and she sat me within sight of her desk, trusting me to behave. I was probably eight at the time, and my only toy was a typewriter. I was already a bookworm, so I understood the fundamental power of words. It was hardly Shakespeare, mind you, but typing next to Grandma was the first time I recall ever grasping my own power to do something with those words.
We urgently need more antiracist journalism. Here is how we’ll play our part.
I first learned to type during the summers I spent going to the office with my grandmother. She worked for a magistrate in Pittsburgh, and she sat me within sight of her desk, trusting me to behave. I was probably eight at the time, and my only toy was a typewriter. I was already a bookworm, so I understood the fundamental power of words. It was hardly Shakespeare, mind you, but typing next to Grandma was the first time I recall ever grasping my own power to do something with those words.
We urgently need more antiracist journalism. Here is how we’ll play our part.
I first learned to type during the summers I spent going to the office with my grandmother. She worked for a magistrate in Pittsburgh, and she sat me within sight of her desk, trusting me to behave. I was probably eight at the time, and my only toy was a typewriter. I was already a bookworm, so I understood the fundamental power of words. It was hardly Shakespeare, mind you, but typing next to Grandma was the first time I recall ever grasping my own power to do something with those words.
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